Anastasia realized the Crown Prince, Mateo of Alba, was truly handsome. 

Anastasia was in her family’s library browsing the Los Libros del Oro, a directory that held information on all the noble families in Alba. The book, also, included the portraits of the royal family. 

Mateo of Alba was twenty-three, only a year older than her, which was perfect. According to her research, he was a master swordsman who had won many jousting tournaments. His physical appearance was stunning. Like in the novel, his purple eyes resembled an amethyst, and his wavy blonde hair was medium-length and tousled over his forehead. 

This portrait confirmed that not only was he handsome, but the world she was in now followed the novel, not the TV series. 

That presented a problem. She remembered the TV show since she had binge-watched the series in two days and became a fan of it. However, if the world followed the book's plot versus the novel, she was in trouble. Before she went to sleep, she was reading the novel’s first chapter, and apparently, the TV series had diverged from the novel. 

In the TV series, Mateo of Alba had blue eyes and dark hair. He was not a swordsman but a remarkable strategist and a diplomat. The TV series also aged him up since the lead actor was much older than the lead actress. 

Would these changes have changed his personality? she thought. It was hard to tell. She needed to do more research on the royal family and the former Anastasia’s cousin, Sophia. She knew she would face the consequences from Duke Esmeralda took offense by marrying the Crown Prince. Sophia and Mateo were not engaged, but the Crown Prince was the perfect match for a duke’s daughter. 

But what could she do?

Her options were limited, and her family did not seem to care for her. Her immediate family was absent from the manor, and the servants seemed to pity her. The servants did not mistreat her but she could tell that they quickly glanced at her scar with a disgusted look on their face. She would quickly dismissed them but she was growing more and more apprehensive at the horror her scar caused.

She close the book she was reading.

There was more to this family’s history, but she had no one to rely on. She was alone in an unknown world, and the Crown Prince was the only person powerful enough to disregard social stigmas like a woman’s scarred face.